Multiplayer Campaign for MTW VI 2.01!!!

[hellenes]

I been thinking of the idea of a PBEM (play by e mail) multiplayer campaign...
Now these is achieveable by using the -ian command line and the I letter in the camp mode which turns off the AI and ALL the factions need the human to play with -ian makes also the ability to change factions during the decisions mode (after 1 turn) the factions are (and by pressing these numbers you are selecting them):

1 REBELS
2 ALMOHADS
3 BYZANTINES
4 DANISH
5 EGYPTIAN
6 ENGLISH
7 FRENCH
5 GERMAN(HRE)
6 ITALIAN
7 POLISH
SHIF+2 SPANISH
3 TURKISH
4 ARAGONESE
5 BURGUNDIAN(IF REBELS HOLD BURGUNDY THEY APPEAR AROUND 1320)
6 G.HORDE (WHEN THEY COME IN 1231)
7 HUNGARIAN
8 NOVGOROD (EARLY ONLY)
9 POPE (NON PLAYABLE IN MP)
0 SICILIAN

Now anyone that wants to join just post the faction and your email.
This will work like these: The first faction leader (you can have friends also like generals) will recieve the savegame of his faction 1087 ad he will make any moves he wants and then send it back to me (zip the file if you can and MY EIMAIL IS arxidamos2003@yahoo.gr) ill change to the next faction alphabetically and send it to the corresponding leader and till the last faction leader who will send it to me ill then send it to all of you with your factions turned on and you will press end year to see the moves around you and then youll recieve the nex year from me (so there has to be one year) and with a list of events (floods etc etc) that happen to your faction and the next turn will begin..I will control the pope and just make shure that he balances the defensive army with the income...
Now about the battles ill try and find out how to change the savegames files so each battle will take place in mp will be represented on the campmap BUT till then all the battles will be held by the computer...

ps:the mode will de glorious achievements (but if the majority wants total domination that would be fine by me)

Hellenes

[dessa14]

i would like to correct one of hellenes mistakes we might be able to play the battles over multiplayer, but i am not sure how we could force these records into the campaign game all moves must be made and then saved and sent to the next faction on the list. if you could refrain from cheating by either pressing g to bring up god mode or by just looking at other factions and changing their moves also hellenes made a mistake DO NOT PRESS END YEAR when you have made your moves save the game how it is and move it to the next person in line. i will be supervising this experiment and seeing whether we can work on it and make a suitable MP campaign (this would be far easier if CA gave me the source code).
thanks dessa and good luck
p.s i will not be playing unless we are short a player.

edit: im not sure whether we can have a rebel team last time i tried to play rebel the game crashed.

2nd Edit: sorry Hellenes but that might be risky the dice might roll differently the 4th time in comparision to the 1st time in battles. oh well we all must learn
also ask the guys that had the small faction campaign they somehow did a Mp campaign
thanks dessa
thanks dessa

[hellenes]

Quote[/b] (dessa14 @ Nov. 14 2003,09:52)]also hellenes made a mistake DO NOT PRESS END YEAR when you have made your moves save the game how it is and move it to the next person in line.

When i wrote press end year i meant the savegame with all the moves entered so the players could see the moves around them...However the next turn savegame will be handed by me and will be common for all the players...

Hellenes

[hellenes]

Quote[/b] (dessa14 @ Nov. 14 2003,09:52)]also hellenes made a mistake DO NOT PRESS END YEAR when you have made your moves save the game how it is and move it to the next person in line.

When i wrote press end year i meant the savegame with all the moves entered so the players could see the moves around them...However the next turn savegame will be handed by me and will be common for all the players...
Also the mp results could be forced in the game as a new startpos with all the vices and virtues entered to the gens and kings/princes and all the depleted units....ive tried to open the savegame file with the notepad MAN IS THERE A MESS

Hellenes

[dessa14]

yeh i had a look too they are encrypted like the .EXE and all the other data files.
thanks dessa

[dessa14]

you can't do that you can only set one V&V to each character all the others are random, and you would have to make a new startpos after each year very tricky lots of mistakes can happen i think just keep to auto-resolve
thanks dessa

[hellenes]

Starting heroes can get any new rank aquired in the mp battle and any v&v so its doable if we use the campaign editor to generate these startposes what doyou think? However the buildins could be implemented in this way:lts say we need a startpos of 1090 with the church in fladres on 3rd year of completion we make a startpos of 1087 (but with the sets in 1090) and run it till 1090 by ordering a church in fladres (or any other building) and viola you have the MP battles result AND a church on 3rd year of completion

Hellenes

[Paxx]

Great idea
May I ask, about the time, must all players be on line and just await other players moves(time consuming)? or a player could make his move (example) one day later?

[dessa14]

i would like to have lets say 6 years to go in one night but it's not my decision it is hellenes im just a spectator who is trying to better it next time it happens
thanks dessa

[Paxx]

Then we have to make sure that every player must be on line a particular time every day.

[hellenes]

Well as i said if we have a campaign editor fast and easy use enough to put the mp battles results in then its fine BUT until then the battles will be autocalculated and as for the timing the turns will move as fast the players will reply and as ill be in position of distributing the save files wich thing will be done in the evening of uk time the presence of all players online wont be necessary because of the email feature...

Hellenes

[ShadesWolf]

OK guys just a few points.....

1/ Multiplayer battles.
It is possible to play all the battle online, however the problem will be then transfering the outcome back into the campaign.
- The save file is not editable, therefore, you cant change it to reflect the outcome. I have spoke to CA and it cant be done. The only solution I came up with was for a 'games master' to edit the start file at the start of each turn, this would cause a probem, as no buildings could ever be produced and no alliances would be recorded. On second thoughts building could be produced, but again its a lot of messing about with the STARTUP files. However you would still have the problem with an army after a battle if it wasnt 100 strength, how would you reflect this.

Ok thats it for the moment, any more questions just fire away.

BTW IMHO you need a games master, he can control the Rebel faction to add a little spice into the game.

[hellenes]

Quote[/b] (ShadesWolf @ Nov. 14 2003,19:06)]- The save file is not editable, therefore, you cant change it to reflect the outcome. I have spoke to CA and it cant be done.However you would still have the problem with an army after a battle if it wasnt 100 strength, how would you reflect this.

Ok thats it for the moment, any more questions just fire away.

BTW IMHO you need a games master, he can control the Rebel faction to add a little spice into the game.

ShadesWolf what are the savefiles (i mean what kind of file and what program creates them)? Are they encripted so there goes the whole CA's they cant be edited or they cant be edited even by them?
And about the depleted armies IIRC you can using the make units entry at ANY numbers (eg 23 ck,44 fmaa et etc)...
the logfiles can provide plenty of info on that part...

Hellenes

[Cazbol]

Once again I rush to the scene to claim the kingdom of Denmark.

Considering that the previous MP campaign experiments only yielded 3 players, one might think it a bit of challenge to get 17 but let's hope people are willing and able.

[hellenes]

I believe that if we manage to get the battles to work we will consider restricting people from it jst jokin...
I hope shadeswolf replies with good news...*crosses fingers*

Hellenes

[dessa14]

ill play swiss when they appear ok
thanks dessa

[Paxx]

Quote[/b] (hellenes @ Nov. 14 2003,19:31)]I believe that if we manage to get the battles to work we will consider restricting people from it jst jokin...
I hope shadeswolf replies with good news...*crosses fingers*

Hellenes

of course i am excluded from on line battles ... a 56K conection is pretty....

[dessa14]

56k is fine if you have a good computer
thanks dessa

[Krutziturken]

I volunteer to take on the thankless role of the Aragonese.

[Nigel]

Cazbol
Is ther a link to the MP campaign that has run before. I'd be very interested.

I like the idea, sounds very good. But would you need all 17 players for this ? That is a lot of people to get organized around the world. It may be safer to start smaller. Still it sounds very interesting. I'd be happy to join as any faction that is needed.

Nigel

[Cazbol]

Hello Nigel. My apologies for the late reply. I simply failed to notice your post.

There have been two previous attempts at a multiplayer campaign. The first one was split into two threads:
General out of character communication
and
Roleplaying part

The other multiplayer campaign is here:
Second attempt

Hope that helps.

[Nigel]

Thanks Cazbol, for the links.

It seems that the first attempt ran into some technical problems and was abandoned as a consequence.

The second attampt seems to be more a try to tackle those problems and as they appear to be solved now, this campaing here is starting up as a consequence.


Still my question, would you need all 17 players ?
That is a lot of logistics involved, even if the technical side works perfectly.

But in any case, I am interested. Keep us updated.
Nigel

[TheSilverKnight]

I think that this idea would be too confusing, having to save your game every year, it going back and forth. It's too much hassle (but that's just my opinion)

[Nigel]

Thinking about it, if you dont get 17 players, you could do it like this:

Say you got 5 players and 1 gamemaster. The 5 could play the game as described, then send the game to the gamemaster who plays all the remaining 12 factions by just choosing to do nothing. Thus you have 5 active players and 12 passive factions just there to offer some (or no) resistance to the human players as they expand their realms until they touch borders with the other human players. Then the real struggel begins.


As for this all beeing too much hassle, IMHO it depends on what you expect from this type of game. It would be a very different game from Single Player, i.e. not just SP where some of the other factions happen to be humans.

Instead the building and the fighting would only be a small part of it and the main fun would be in the roleplaying and the diplomatic doings, the back and forth of negotiating treaties, the making and breaking of alliances. With all this happening via eMail, a turn could easily take a few days.


Whether you like this type of game or not depends on personal taste.
I for myself would be interested and give it a go.

[FoundationII]

I think it's too much work to have that kind of a game, besides, the game probably must be modified, if the game doesn't have to be modified I'll try to enter and be the golden horde, the byzantines, or almohads (preferrably Byzantines)

[FoundationII]

At least if you can play the golden horde